The invention relates to an improved method and apparatus for accessing an electronic mail system via the Internet to retrieve a user""s electronic mail messages (xe2x80x9ce-mailxe2x80x9d) and for restricting a computer user""s access to a computer""s hard drive.
Various well known electronic mail systems exist today. For example, an electronic mail system may be implemented on a peer-to-peer network, a client/server architecture, a mainframe computer, on a dial-up service, such as Compuserve, AOL, Microsoft MSN, etc. Various methods for retrieving e-mail stored in a user""s e-mail account are also well known.
The invention retrieves e-mail via the Internet, allowing a user to input his e-mail address having a hostname and a password to a computer having a central processing unit, at least one data storage medium, an input device, and output device. The invention identifies an e-mail server based on the hostname and connects to the e-mail server.
The invention also prevents the computer from executing an executable data file stored on a removable data storage medium thereby reducing the risk that the system will become infected with a potential virus stored on the removable data storage medium.